Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

When we left in the summer the gazebo was still up so we couldn't see the two sets of steps in 'alignment' and their full glory:

Ben completed the installation of the railings and we cleaned and started painting them. We had bought the Hammerite MetalMaster spray paint gun that is meant to give a 360 coverage  and each can (expensive at £14) is meant to cover up to 12 metres of railings. So we have about 25 metres so I bought twice the suggested number of cans - 4. This only covered about 3/4 of the railings and the coverage was not good so we then had to paint them by hand. So a thumbs down from us on the Metalmaster - expensive paint and poor coverage. Our bars are square, it may work better on round verticals but I won't be trying it!

Back to the terrace.... the final effect of the railings was immpressive and they actually made the terrace feel even larger which given our concern that it would make it seem smaller was very pleasing.

With my back playing up I was of little help to Alan as he designed and built the central set of steps from the house down to the terrace.

Alan unfortunately didn't see the steps in their final finished glory with the slabs cut, bedded in and grouted:

My thanks to Alan for all his help and suggestions on this project, the final result is much better than my original idea.

The terrace was transformed today by the fitting of the railings and we are pleased with the results, for some reason they make the terrace seem even bigger.

Still work to be done finishing the fitting, handrails down the steps, edges smoothed and then of course painting. But for the painting we have a secret weapon - an electrostatic sprayer that is supposed to be able to paint all sides with one spray and little/no overspill. Will report back on theory vs practice.

Ben had installed the steel supporting posts for the terrace railings and my job was to fit the coping stones before the railings are installed.

All well and good but drilling accurately (or in my case nearly accurately!) some 30 25mm holes in the stone was an interesting challenge however with a bit of patience and using 6 different drill sizes for each hole the task was completed.

The steps down to the pool from the new terrace consisted of a couple of soil ledges that were sometimes tricky to negotiate (so I am told), so high on the list of priorities was to build real steps. I was lucky to have the advice, guidance and assistance of a professional builder who just happened to staying with us for a short visit. Without his help not only would the steps not have been completed as quickly but would not have been as well made. So thanks you Steven!